Q&A: Retired McGill University professor convinced ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that aliens exist
Jen Gerson | Feb 25, 2013 7:07 PM ET
More from Jen Gerson | @jengerson
Paul Perreault / Southam News"The evidence of the extra-terrestrial nature of some of what UFO phenomenon is reported is in my opinion established beyond a reasonable doubt," Don Donderi said
Retired Montreal psychology professor Don Crosbie Donderi is convinced extraterrestrial life exists. The educator, who spent 47 years at McGill University, including as associate dean of the faculty of graduate studies and research — applies his insights into psychology to a book: UFOs, ETs, and Alien Abductions, a Scientist looks at the Evidence. It will be published in May. Mr. Donderi spoke to the Post’s Jen Gerson on Monday.
HandoutDon Donderi, former McGill professor who wrote UFOs, ETs and Alien Abductions:
A Scientist Looks at the Evidence.
Q. You write about cases of humans believing they were abducted. I believe your press release refers to a “catch and release” program. Do you have physical evidence to support that?
A. I don’t personally have physical evidence to support that. What I say in the book is that the evidence of the extra-terrestrial nature of some of what UFO phenomenon is reported is in my opinion established beyond a reasonable doubt.
Q. Give me an example of some of that evidence.
A. There is an entire chapter on six UFO abduction cases. Each of them has what you might call in common a touchstone. Every one of the people involved saw a close up of a UFO. Everyone of the people had missing time they could not account for, a period of an hour or more, maybe even two or three hours. After the initial sighting, they ended up driving down a road not knowing how they got there. In several other cases, people saw the UFO as well. Some of these people wound up with scars they could not explain.
Q. Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what you do?
A. I worked at McGill University from 1962 to 2009. I was an associate professor of psychological research and published well over 100 papers on one thing or another. In 1982 I co-founded a consulting company that does human factors ergonomics consulting. I’ve been on the mainstream of science and engineering my entire professional life.
Q. How did you get interested in this particular subject?
A. I was interested as a boy when this stuff started happening in 1947. I was old enough to read the newspapers. I’m a curious person and I was persuaded this was a curious phenomenon. Thirty years later, I had a university position. I had tenure. I could study things without worrying about what other people thought about them. This is a very liberating thing. Nobody except university professors have tenure in the world, it makes you an aristocrat right off the bat. You can do what you like as long as you do your work, which I always did.
Q. We’ve seen a lot of studies showing that human perception is a very spotty thing. People have a way of even inventing memories; sometimes when more than one person claims to see something, they start talking to each other and can affect each others’ accounts, for example
A. I cover all of this stuff [in my book] including everything you’ve talked about, because I’ve investigated some of these things professionally myself. I can assure you the evidence that survives a critical look at what might have contributed to those reports is sound evidence.
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Q. Are we talking about physical evidence?
A. Now anybody can take a photograph from the Internet, jazz things up in Photoshop. So a photograph is worthless as evidence in and of itself. But when you get multiple photographs, or photographs taken by gun cameras on a fighter plane chasing UFOs — of which there are several examples — or radar plots taken during a UFO chase. You’ll find there is a tremendous amount of corroborative evidence.
Q. Just because we don’t always know what’s seen on these types of tapes doesn’t mean that’s proof that it’s extraterrestrial.
A. No, but what else is it? What you have to do is you have to eliminate the other probable causes … and what you begin to build up is a collection of evidence that stands the sniping of people who say it can’t be therefore it isn’t.
Q. From a psychological perspective, when we hear about people getting abducted by aliens, do you not think that on the balance of probabilities that a more plausible explanation is that there is an element of self delusion, or waking nightmares at play here? Do you not think there is a more plausible explanation for these reports than the idea that there is an alien species coming down to Earth to kidnap humans?
A. That is a plausible explanation for many of the reports, but not all of the reports, I agree with you. I also said evidence for abduction is that is a balance of probable evidence, not beyond reasonable doubt.
Q. Don’t you think the balance of probability favours a much less glamorous, much more human explanation that our perceptions are flawed?
A. No.
• Email: jgerson@nationalpost.com | Twitter: jengerson
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
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